Henry Glover stopped his motor home at an old brick tobacco barn on the Woodpecker Trail. On the way home to Forest City, N.C., from Miami, Glover said he chose the road because it's straight and there's no traffic.

A rare Woodpecker Trail sign on the south side of the Georgia 121 bridge over Big Satilla Creek at the Appling-Pierce county line.

SURRENCY, GA. | Heading home from Miami to Forest City, N.C., Henry Glover pulled his motor home to the side of Georgia 121 to give his friend’s sweater-clad chihuahua a bathroom break.

After spending the night in Folkston, Glover said, “I’m going back up 121. It’s a good road, straight and there ain’t much traffic.”

Economic development officials in small cities between Augusta and Folkston wish more people thought that way.

Georgia 121, a highway with stretches as straight and narrow as Tim Tebow’s life story, was once the road of choice between Charlotte, N.C., and Florida’s Gulf Coast. Because it cut through so much standing timber, it was dubbed the Woodpecker Trail. It was popular enough that Florida and South Carolina transportation officials changed their highway numbers between the Gulf and Rock Hill on the North Caroline line to 121 to match Georgia.

The travelers that once bought pecan logs, boiled peanuts and soft drinks in the towns along 121, have shifted to the faster interstate highways and thus that lack of traffic Glover prizes.

A THRUWAY TURNED BYWAY

At her desk in the concrete block city hall, Surrency City Clerk Betty Moody said, “This used to be the cross tie capital of the world. That was a long time ago.”

The old Surrency Bank building next door is on the National Register of Historic Places having been a post office and is now a city museum.

The U.S. Census says the once-thriving city has 201 residents, she said.

Some places on the Woodpecker Trail are doing better and others have better days ahead.

The roadbed it shares with U.S. 25 between Millen and Augusta is four lanes now and seemingly picking up more traffic every day. But south of Millen, the road jogs slightly west and, except for Metter, sees little but trees, farms and rivers until it hits Blackshear. The roadside is decorated with pine bark and cotton from the prevailing industries.

Traffic has increased dramatically in Metter, but it’s mostly because of Interstate 16 between Savannah and Macon. Mayor Billy Trapnell nonetheless thinks promoting the Woodpecker Trail would help the city.

The cities along the route have formed the Woodpecker Trail Association to promote the route and the Georgia Department of Transportation recognizes its scenic byway designation.

It’s hard to tell how many Glovers there are, following a favorite old route, or how many are taking the road because of its historic significance, Trapnell said.

“It’s extremely difficult to track unless you interview everybody who comes through,’’ and that can’t be done, he said. “We keep hoping that it’s helping. I don’t see anyway it can hurt.”

The road has sort of followed the economy, he said.

Trapnell thought it was first touted as a tourist route in 1949 during the post-World War II boom, but a 1922 travel book said the concept went back to 1915.

“It was one of the early motor routes,’’ he said.

It was relatively popular until the late 1920s when the Depression hit. Traffic nearly disappeared until the 1950s when more people could afford Florida vacations, Trapnell said.

“Then came the interstate highways in the ’60s and ’70s and pulled everybody off the highway,’’ he said.

Trapnell said his hope now is in people who want more leisurely drives.

“There are people like me. We like the back roads,’’ he said.

OFF-THE-ROAD PLACES

And there are some things to do and see on those back roads.

In state parks alone, there’s an 18-hole golf course in Reidsville at Gordonia-Altamaha State Park. Magnolia Springs State Park just off the road near Millen will soon have an exhibit from an archaeological dig of a Civil War prisoner of war camp. Just west near Twin City, George L. Smith State Park has a combined grist mill and covered bridge over the dam at Watson Mill built in 1880. It also has fishing and canoeing.

In Blackshear, the city has a state grant to remodel the ground floor of its old hanging jail into a Woodpecker Trail welcome center, said Tommy Lowmon, the city’s director of economic development and tourism.

Lowmon said the city won the grant after it reminded the DOT that Georgia 121 is a scenic byway.

Farther south, the roadway merges onto U.S. 1 to carry traffic to Folkston where the train-viewing platform at the “Folkston Funnel” draws train watchers from around the world. South of Folkston is the Suwannee Canal Recreation Center, the east entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp.

Beyond that it’s pines row-on-row until Florida where it passes through Macclenny, Gainesville, Lake Butler and then Lebanon where it hooks up with U.S. 19.

“That was the short cut to Tampa,’’ said Bill McGill, who oversees the Lake Butler historical museum.

The road is still used, but now there are probably more walkers and bicyclists than northern vacationers, McGill said.

“It has a bike lane,’’ he said. “They’ve got it fixed up real nice.”

Trucks also still use it, McGill said, but the Woodpecker Trail name is seldom used and most are too young to have ever heard of it.

McGill figures he took the trail out of high school when he and other Lake Butler High players rode the bus to Clemson to try out for legendary football coach Frank Howard.

After three days of working out against the varsity, Howard called them all in and said, “Boys, I think y’all ought to go back to Lake Butler,’’ McGill said.

“Instead of taking the Trailways, we put the money in our pockets to eat off of and hitchhiked back,’’ some of the trip undoubtedly along 121, McGill said.

He ended up playing for the University of Florida, a short trip up the Woodpecker Trail.

You brought back some good memories for me and my brother-n-laws. We took the Woodpecker Trail dozens of times with my late grandfather to go hunting in Greens Cut (just outside of Waynesboro). While we all thought the 95 to 16 route was quicker my Grandfather swore that taking the Woodpecka' Trail all the way from Jacksonville was the only way to do it.

He passed away just this past year at the age of 95, and his was in a ground blind looking for deer until just this past year.